Fantastical 2 for iPhone FAQ

Questions about Apple Watch?

Will Fantastical work on my iPad?

Fantastical for iPhone is not a Universal app, but it will run on your iPad. This means Fantastical for iPhone will look and work exactly the same on your iPad as it does on an iPhone or iPod touch. If you're looking for the best Fantastical experience on your iPad, Fantastical 2 for iPad is available as a separate app.

I purchased Fantastical 1 for iPhone. How do I install it from the App Store again?

If you've previously purchased Fantastical 1 then you can reinstall it for free. Go to the App Store, tap on the Updates tap, and then tap on Purchased. Search for Fantastical in that list and then tap on the install button.

Why aren't my calendars or reminders appearing in Fantastical?

First, please make sure your data appears as you'd expect in the Calendar and Reminders app. If it doesn't, make sure your accounts are configured correctly in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section of the Settings app.

Once you've ensured your data is in the built-in apps, make sure you've allowed Fantastical to access your events and reminders. You can verify this in the Privacy section of the Settings app.

If your events or reminders still aren't showing up, try turning your phone off and back on. You can do this by holding down on the power button and sliding to turn off the phone.

Why isn't Fantastical syncing my data?

Fantastical itself doesn't sync your data. Instead, your device connects to a service such as iCloud, Google Calendar, or Microsoft Exchange which stores your calendars. When Fantastical updates your calendar, your service will upload these changes and sync them to your other apps that are signed in to the service. These might include other versions of Fantastical, or any other app configured to use your calendar service.

If events or reminders don't seem to be syncing between devices, there's a few things that you should check:

Make sure your calendar service has been added to iOS. Open iOS's Settings app > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Accounts. If your service is added here make sure the 'Sync' setting (located at the bottom of the Mail, Contacts, Calendars screen) is set to 'All Events'.

Check that your calendars aren't hidden. Open Fantastical's in-app settings and tap 'Calendars'. Make sure that all calendars you wish to view have a checkmark next to them. Otherwise they'll remain hidden from view.

Ensure Fantastical has access to iOS's calendars. Open the iOS Settings app and scroll down to 'Fantastical'. In here, make sure the 'Calendars' switch is turned on.

If none of the previous steps work, try switching off your calendar service in iOS's Settings app > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Accounts. Once all calendars have been removed from your device, turn the switch back on again.

Why can't I see events that are more than a month old?

Check to make sure your device is set to sync all of your events.

Open the Settings app

Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Scroll down to the Calendars section and make sure Sync is set to All Events

Why are my new events being set as all-day events?

New events will be set to all-day if you don't specify a time in your sentence. If you want a timed event, simply add the time to your sentence, such as "Meeting on Friday 3pm-5pm," and Fantastical will disable all-day mode and set the event times.

How do I get alerts for events and reminders to open Fantastical?

You can enable alerts for events and reminders in Fantastical's settings under the Advanced settings. If you enable this option, you'll also want to disable the alerts for the Calendar and Reminder app. You can do that in the Notification Center section of the Settings app.

Can I change the notification sound Fantastical makes?

It is not possible to change Fantastical's notification sound to use the built-in alert sounds provided by Apple. However, there is a workaround: open iOS's Settings app and go to the Notifications section. Select Fantastical and disable 'Sounds' but keep all other types of notification active. Next, select the default Calendar app in the Notifications screen and disable all notifications except 'Sounds', which you can then configure to anything you like. This way, Fantastical will notify you of an event alert visually, and your chosen Calendar notification sound will play simultaneously.

How do I show the date on the app icon?

You can show the current date in as a badge on Fantastical's app icon by going into Fantastical's settings and changing the App Badge Icon setting to Current Date. Apple does not allow developers to modify the icon directly, so this is the best workaround that is currently available.

Which types of calendars does Fantastical work with?

Fantastical works with any calendar that you have set up on your device's Settings. If it appears in Calendar, it will also appear in Fantastical. If you haven't already added your calendars to your iOS device, you can do so by opening the Settings app, selecting Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, and adding your accounts there. iOS supports syncing calendars over iCloud, Google, Yahoo, Exchange, and more.

Are my accounts and events safe in Fantastical? Does Flexibits collect any personal data?

Fantastical does not collect or transmit any personal data. See our privacy page for more information.

How do I specify a calendar or reminder list when creating a new event?

You can specify a calendar by using a slash (/) at the beginning or end of a sentence. Even easier, you only need the first character of a calendar. For example, /w or /h would create your event in the Work or Home calendars, respectively. You can be more specific if you have multiple calendars with similar names, such as /pe for Personal and /pr for Private. Alternatively you can use the word calendar, such as "Lunch with John calendar work". Finally, you can tap the space bar four times instead of using a slash. For example, "Lunch with John<space><space><space><space>w" will do the same thing.

Does Fantastical sync with my Mac or other iOS devices?

Yes, just make sure that you sync your calendars over Exchange or with a service such as iCloud or Google Calendar.

Why can't I sort my reminders manually?

Unfortunately, Apple does not allow third-party apps to change the order of reminders in the Reminders app or when using Reminders data. Due to this restriction, Fantastical sorts your reminders by due date. You can view all your reminders in a single list, or separately by each list. Fantastical also displays reminders in your schedule on the date they're due.

I'm getting unwanted alerts on my events!

There are multiple ways to configure calendar alerts and Fantastical, iOS, and possibly your calendar service, all have their own alert settings. It could be that the unwanted alerts are being added by something outside of Fantastical. If you events have unwanted alerts, check the following:

Open iOS's Settings app > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Default Alert Times. If default alert times are configured here, they may appear in addition to Fantastical's. Disable them if necessary.

If you're using Google Calendar with Fantastical, it's likely that Google Calendar has it's own default notifications configured. Go to www.google.com/calendar and click Settings > Calendars > Edit notifications (you'll have to do this separately for each calendar). Check whether you have any event or all-day notifications enabled. If you do, remove them to prevent the extra alerts from appearing in Fantastical.

Does Fantastical have a URL handler?

Fantastical supports the following URL actions:

fantastical2://parse?sentence=[input] — Begin creating a new event with the given sentence. The notes parameter can also be added to specify a note with the event. For example: fantastical2://parse?sentence=sentence&notes=[your note]. The following parameters are also supported: add (set to 1 to automatically add an event - be careful!), reminder, due (requires the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm), title, location, url, notes, start, end, allDay (start/end require the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm, allDay can be 1 or 0). If you use the sentence parameter it will cause other parameters to be ignored.

fantastical2://show?date=yyyy-mm-dd — Jumps to the specified date. You can also use a natural language date such as "Tuesday" or "next month" and Fantastical will do its best to show the date.

Fantastical supports x-callback-url. x-callback-url can be used by using fantastical2://x-callback-url/parse?parameters or fantastical2://x-callback-url/show?parameters. The parameters x-source, x-success, x-cancel, and x-error are all supported. Refer to the x-callback-url site for more details.